Ch. 7 - First Meeting with Senior Ning Yi
My Fake Girlfriend is Going All Out to Defend Against Their AttacksThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Why did the name Ning Yi sound so familiar?
Ning-Ning-Ning-Ning Yi?! That "flower on the high peak" Senior Ning Yi?!
My hand holding the letter began to tremble. I looked at those two simple characters over and over again, wishing I could use a magnifying glass to see if something was written incorrectly somewhere. But no matter how I looked, the two characters "Ning Yi" still stood firmly on the paper without the slightest waver.
Could there be someone at school with the same name as Senior Ning Yi? No, no, I recognized this handwriting. It was the same as the application form submitted when applying for literature club activities—Senior Ning Yi's handwriting. At that time, I had paid special attention because I saw such beautiful handwriting.
The reason Senior Ning Yi was looking for me couldn't possibly be to submit an application form, right? To confess to me? I wasn't narcissistic enough to think that Senior Ning Yi, who had no connection with me at all, would fall in love with me from afar.
The only possibility was that Wu Yaoyao had gone to find her, she had learned that I had used her as an excuse to reject Wu Yaoyao, and now she was angry and looking to settle accounts with me. No wonder I hadn't seen Wu Yaoyao today.
Thinking of Senior Ning Yi's face that never showed a smile and her ice-cold gaze, my heart grew anxious, and the palm holding the envelope began to sweat.
...
The Street Heart Café was located at Street Heart Plaza, five bus stops away from school. It was the kind of café that people passing by would have an impression of, but had never actually gone inside. Although Street Heart Plaza had "plaza" in its name, it was actually the commercial center of this area, similar to the kind of place that was the city's heart.
At this time, it was right when people got off work and students finished school. Street Heart Plaza was gradually filling with people. By the time I arrived, it was already getting a bit crowded.
I passed through the pedestrian street, squeezing all the way to the front of that café. Looking inside, there were quite a few customers even at this time.
At the very back of the shop a girl sat quietly. Around her, like some kind of force field, many men sat scattered. Most of these men had laptops, looking sanctimonious, but in reality their gazes would glance toward that girl from time to time. Probably due to the aura surrounding that girl, no one dared to approach and hit a wall.
The girl who could have this kind of force field must be Senior Ning Yi. I sighed and walked toward her.
"Uh... Senior Ning Yi?" I walked to the table where Senior Ning Yi was sitting and greeted her awkwardly.
When I entered within two meters of Senior Ning Yi's range, the surrounding gazes, as if adjusted by a professional lighting technician, all swished toward me at once. It made my entire body shudder.
Senior Ning Yi heard my voice but didn't raise her head. She only said in a clear, cold voice, "Please sit." Then she continued reading the book in her hands seriously.
I sat down in the seat across from her as she said. At the same time, the gazes cast from around us intensified by several degrees.
The café was minimalist in style. The layout wasn't large, but every part carried traces of the owner's careful design. Simple furnishings divided the café into area after area, and the low-key color scheme made the entire atmosphere very serious.
During the time I sat down and looked around, Senior Ning Yi, who was wearing the school uniform as always, kept holding her book the entire time, her eyes never leaving it.
Her posture remained upright and proper. Combined with that waterfall-like long, straight black hair, she raised the atmosphere's level of seriousness by a notch. Her cicada-wing-thin lips moved slightly without making a sound—she must have been reading some annotated verse from the book.
But her eyes reading the book remained clear and cold. Her aloof gaze and translucent nose seemed never to have retained any expression.
If it weren't for her hair being slightly stirred by the motion of turning pages, I probably would have thought this was an aesthetic "statue gazing at a book."
I just quietly looked at Senior Ning Yi's face like this, ignoring time and the surrounding gazes.
Whoosh.
Senior Ning Yi finally "came alive." Her lips parted slightly as she let out a breath. Her slender white hands slowly closed the book and gently placed it on the table.
"I'm sorry, this is a bad habit of mine. When there are only a few pages left in a book, I can't help but finish reading it." Senior Ning Yi solemnly bowed to me.
Senior Ning Yi's action truly startled me, scaring me into quickly withdrawing my unrestrained gaze from her face.
"It's fine, I'm not in a hurry." I scratched my head awkwardly.
How many people longed for but couldn't get an opportunity to appreciate Senior Ning Yi's face at such close range? But even though I was so close to Senior Ning Yi, I still felt a sense of untouchability. This ice-cold temperament was truly terrifying.
"That's good then." Senior Ning Yi nodded, her clear eyes meeting my gaze.
At the same time, a server from the café walked over. "What would you two like to order?"
Senior Ning Yi took the menu, a hint of difficulty showing between her brows and eyes.
"Latte. What about you, Junior Bai Qiao?" Senior Ning Yi said, pushing the menu in front of me.
"Latte as well."
"Alright." The server smiled, nodded, collected the menu, and left.
Unlike when I first came in, aside from a few seconds looking at the menu, Senior Ning Yi didn't speak the rest of the time. She just quietly looked at me, giving me that feeling of the childhood prank of having ice cubes put down the back of my shirt.
"I'm Ning Yi from Class 15, third year." As the awkward atmosphere continued to spread, Senior Ning Yi introduced herself.
Although Senior Ning Yi had always been very low-key, I thought there were probably very few people at all of Peony High School who didn't recognize her. From her self-introduction, it seemed Senior Ning Yi was unaware of this.
"I'm Bai Qiao from Class 10, second year." I hastily picked up the conversation.
"Yes, I know." Senior Ning Yi nodded lightly, still looking at me, as if observing carefully. "Junior Bai Qiao may not know me, but I've always known about you."
Senior Ning Yi had always known about me?! How was this possible? I had never done anything to become famous.
I had never won any awards, didn't have any outstanding qualities, and even for student council activities that required showing one's face, it was always Tang Xin who went. If someone came to our school asking about me, they would probably only hear responses like "Vice President? Who?"
"Senior Ning Yi knows about me?" I found it a bit incredible.
"Yes, that's also one of the reasons I called you here today."